The Portland Jazz Festival kicks off Friday, and there's a full slate of top-flight Blue Note artists coming to town to help celebrate the iconic label's 70th anniversary (and the 25th anniversary of the re-launch). Several of us at the Oregonian will be blogging our impressions of the music and the festival. A few thoughts on the even of the kickoff:

1. Blanchard's "A Requiem for Katrina" is an incredibly heartbreaking suite of music. I'm looking forward to hearing it live and getting a feel for how the live experience of it does/doesn't alter the sense of immediacy in the themes of sorrow and hope.

2. A big question for this year's festival: How will the scary economy affect ticket sales? Jazz isn't the most lucrative genre in the best of times -- and we all know these times aren't the best. My early impression is that it's been a rough road (they're already doing buy-one-get-one for some shows). Considering how nervous people are about money and how consumer spending has taken a giant hit, what will this mean for the festival's long-term survival, especially considering it already almost shut down permanently when things were marginally better last year?

3. What does the festival mean for the local scene? I've heard this question a lot from musicians, fans, etc. The festival brings in some wonderful headliners, but local musicians need year-round support to make a living at this and to continue making their music. How does the festival affect that?